The thing that struck me while reading the piece was that I found the tone somehow disrespectful - how dare the writer say he wasn't spiritual. And this despite me being a card-carrying atheist and also someone who doesn't really like Coltrane's work after "A Love Supreme". Is this the Coltrane Ju-Ju at work? Can anyone think of a great musician dying early that didn't create a mythology like this?posted by pascal at 11:19 AM on September 23, 2001

I think that generally, this ramped up mythology is a byproduct of guarded AND flawed individuals. Miles Davis and Charlie Parker had it, but they were both secretive men with a sense of mystery. Chet Baker would have had the same mythology had he not been completely exposed to the core by the movie "Let's get lost."posted by machaus at 12:16 PM on September 23, 2001

Only 75? Wow, it really makes you realize how young he was when he died.posted by jpoulos at 12:55 PM on September 23, 2001

I personally do see Coltrane's work (around the Love Supreme time) as almost mystical in its qualities.

Not in any quasi-religious way, but as an acknowledgement that when he played, he was on 'another level' from any other musician.

34 years on, I still feel there are parts of his solos on "A Love Supreme" that the jazz world are still to comprehend fully.

By their nature, geniuses attract an almost cult-like following, it has to be said. Coltrane, Bird, Monk; they've all had it.

I believe it's not for any spiritual reasons, but purely because their work lets us glimpse another world. A world more exciting than our own.posted by poncho at 3:17 AM on September 24, 2001

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